Monday, March 26, 2012

Que Sera, Sera, or Don't Go Down the Rabbit Hole

Doris Day used to sing that song, Que Sera, Sera, which was enough to put me off prophesying since I first heard that overly sugared voice back in 1953 or thereabouts. More to the point, I have flatly eschewed prophecy, having previously remarked on the tenuous grasp human beings have on foreseeing their futures or bringing them to pass as envisioned. Harpers Magazine (Weekly Review, March 19, 2012) concurs, remarking that "Scottish psychologists, after failing to find evidence that humans could see into the future, urged their colleagues 'not to venture too far down the rabbit hole.' " The future presumably being "the rabbit hole" and attempts to peer into it the same as "venturing too far down it." Speaking of rabbits . . .

Enter Til, a rare earless rabbit born at a small zoo in eastern Germany:

Til then

As Der Spiegel recently burbled, "The future had looked so bright for tiny Til, a baby rabbit born without ears three weeks ago in a small zoo in . . . eastern Germany. Earless rabbits are very rare, and that factor combined with his cuteness would surely have made him a media celebrity, especially in Germany, which has a history of worshipping furry baby animals."

Apparently peering into a rabbit's future is sending the poor rabbit down the rabbit hole - armer Til (poor Til) was crushed under a cameraman’s shoe shortly before a press conference scheduled in the rabbit’s honor. “We are all shocked,” said the zoo’s director, Uwe Dempewolf. “No one could have foreseen this.” Which comes as no surprise to Scottish psychologists, although that's exactly what the financial industry has said (quite disingenuously) ever since the Crash of 2008. But be that as it may.